The Waves of Time
by njking24
Summary: Sent back to the past Uzumaki Naruto strives to improve the lives of the people he once knew and loved, even if he can't do it directly. It is said the smallest breeze from a butterfly's wings can cause the greatest of storms. So what can the winds of storm cause?
1. Chapter 1

**I like Naruto time travel stories, though i don't seem to have found one that treats the story in a manner i would like. I hinted at this story not too long ago in my other story "other worlds" and i'm glad to say the first chapter is finally finished. I hope you all like it. **

**As always.**

**Read and review.**

xxx-xxxx-xxxx

The rains fell.

Tiny droplets of water, each one stinging, hurting, shearing its way into his body with its decent. The rains fell, the water washed over his body, and the mud beneath him seeped into his open festering wounds. Blond hair laid matted against his forehead, and his eyes remained closed.

_Why wasn't he dead?_

Why, after everything, wasn't he dead? Why? Why did he still live? He'd earned death hadn't he? He'd redeemed their deaths hadn't he? He'd re-killed Madara, _eviscerated _Obito. Made sure that each were not only dead, but that their souls would never receive the peace that was the after life. He'd sealed the Juubi away in a technique that should have cost him his life, and yet….

_Why wasn't he dead?_

Yet he lived. Yet he remained alive, feeling the droplets of rain beat on his face, feeling the thick disgusting mud seep into his wounds, feeling the low thrum of his weakened heart in his chest. Where everyone he had known, where everyone he had loved, where all the lives that had been lost that shouldn't have been. Where there had been so much death, and destruction, _he lived._

He shouldn't have lived, he couldn't live, he didn't deserve to live. _He refused to live._

He willed his body to give up, willed his heart to stop beating, but…but nothing. He lived.

_He lived._

"God damn it." The words escaped his lips, they were hoarse, and harsh.

"God damn it!" He screamed, he screamed against the sheer unfairness of the world, the fact that his body refused to die, and he was too weak to end his own life.

"God damn it…" He whispered. Tears streaming down his closed eyes, the rain still falling, mixing in with the salty liquid and sloshing to the floor.

"Why?" He whispered, and only the splatter of raindrops, only the thunder of the storm that raged above was the world's response. He couldn't talk anymore, couldn't demand anymore.

So he fell to the darkness, he fell unconscious all the while hoping he would die. All the while wondering why he wasn't dead.

But still, _uncaring_, _unmoving_, _unchanging_ in the land of rain, the rain fell.

xxxx-xxx-xxxx

"**Wake up."** The deep voice he'd known for years, nay all his life, called out to him.

He didn't want to wake up, it was pointless when he'd just fail. When he couldn't do anything right, or accomplish anything at all. The rains had stopped, his wounds ached with the pain of being suddenly healed and the once thick mud was slowly starting to harden around him. His face was dry as he'd exhausted his tears long before he'd fallen to the darkness, but still, he didn't want to wake up.

"**Stop whining, get over yourself and wake up. We've been given a second chance. Don't waste it, get up. **_**Wake**_** up."**

He moaned, a great big sigh escaping his lips as he did so.

Fuck the voice, He didn't want to move, he'd it his all. Fought to the last inch of his life and he'd lost. So didn't he deserve to rest? Didn't _he _of all people deserve to just…rest, to just give up?

"**No. Get up."**

"Fuck you."

He moaned in distaste as potent evil chakra poured through his pathways and angered up his blood. "Stop." He didn't want that. He didn't want to move. But this chakra, it would make him move. It would make _not _moving impossible. Because it made his body crazy with anticipation, unbearable in the need to move.

_He had to move._

"Stop God damn it!"

_He had to run. He had to chase and hand. He had to kill, and feel blond on his hands, and in his hair , and on his skin, and…__**goddamnit! **_

He stood up against his will, arched his body to stretch out the kinds, and in a mad dash of energy, in a uncontrollable urge to speed away leapt forward. In a mad dash he ran ahead. His spine arched, he pumped chakra into his feet and he was moving, running, sprinting full speed, wasting chakra in a desperate attempt to _move. _

"Fuck you."

"**Stop whining. Get moving, you're not one to mope, and you'll thank me for this later, I know it, you know it."**

"I just wanted to be left alone."

"**There's no rest for men like you Naruto. The world is constantly being shaped and reformed by the wills of men like yours. To give up…to let that go…"**

To move, god it felt so glorious to move. To feel the wind whipping through his hair, to feel his lungs screaming with joy. To feel his legs pumping, and heart beating, and his mind rushing with adrenaline as he moved…it felt good.

"**Naruto…"**

He didn't answer, he didn't want too.

"**Naruto..."**

Still he was silent, his determination not to answer was long dedicated.

"**Naruto you need to stop pouting and stop to think this over. The other eight gave us a chance to fix everything, to pull back the veil of time fifteen years…it's a sacrifice that shouldn't be taken lightly. They gave their lives, their very souls to to rend time and space apart, to make their sacrifice so meaningless…"**

Naruto sighed a long, deep, wistful sigh as the deep dredges of depression started to settle in. His frown was more than visable, and his running slowly crawled into a sensible more moderate pace. After a few moment he'd stopped in his tracks and was leaning against a tree.

"Fine, I'm just…I'm so tired."

"**You're not the only one Naruto, and you're not alone in this…I'm here. Look, we'll need a plan."**

Naruto sighed as he looked up to the clouds above. The constant grey storms that perpetually hung over the land of rains seemed to mirror his mood.

"Fifteen years."

Fifteen long arduous years. Fifteen years in which he had spend most alone, depressed, sad, and anger. Fifteen years in which a little boy had stood silently to the side as other played, in which a little boy had absorbed the hate thrown at him consciously by adults and unknowing by children. Fifteen years in which a three-year-old boy barely able to annunciate had grown into a man capable of fighting monstrosities other would have no chance of surviving against. Fifteen years to change the course of history, to mend the shape of time to his will, fifteen years to change things for the better.

It was daunting, challenging tasks, but then, he'd always been good under pressure.

His eyes cast back to the grey, warping skys. The clouds were darkening, and he couldn't tell if it was about to rain once more, or if it was about to turn dark. Perhaps both, but either way he had to move fast. And, of course, he had to come up with a plan.

xxx-xxx-xxxx

As Naruto huddled over the warmth of the small flame he couldn't help but to cast a look at the elderly old woman who had come to his rescue. Walking slowly through the ever-worsening storms, Naruto had cast a sharp eye around him. Hoping either to find himself an abandoned home to occupy for a few days, or too at least, spend the night and get out of the damn rain. Then he'd sensed a small, pitiable, and obviously civilian, waddling feebly throughout the abandoned town. He'd continued walking, pretending to not notice her presence until she called out to him.

"What you doing in this rain boyo?"

Casually he turned his head to her, taking in her presence as he did so. She was short, as old people tend to be, with wrinkled skin, and silver white hair. Her grey-blue eyes held a strong light to them that hinted at a strong mind regardless of a weak body. She carried a bamboo umbrella, and sturdy cane with a wide base in order to grab a better hold to the sinking mud of Ame.

"Trying to find a decent place to sleep granny. I was just passing through."

The old woman was quite, her thin lips wrapping into a wry smile. Her eyes glinted with glee, and she lifted her cane to point at him.

"You lookin mighty suspicious boyo, walking around here, flaring all that chakra and what not."

Naruto stopped and stared at the elderly woman, contemplating his next action. She was obviously skilled at sensing, and his chakra was heavily suppressed, and partially masked with nature chakra. Reflexively his hand reached behind him in an attempt to grab Kunai that weren't there. She seemed to read his thoughts, and laughed in response.

"Now, now, there's not a need for violence. I'm simply an old woman making an observation. You've got a lot of chakra, and all of it isn't yours. You appeared within a thousand yards or so of here today, seemingly out of thin air. You're using a strange type of chakra to mask your simply insane reserves. And to top it all off you're wearing the spiral of my dead clan on your ripped and shredded clothing. All in all, you're an interesting little anomaly boyo. An interesting little anomaly indeed."

Naruto stopped to stare at the old woman. Her blue-grey eyes stared into his, and her wrinkled face morphed into a wide smile.

"Come on. Follow me, wouldn't do at all to leave a young'un out in the rain where they bound to get sick. Get on inside, i'll get you something to eat, and warm you up real good. Then we can talk, and if I like your answers, well…we'll go from there."

Naruto briefly contemplated ignoring the woman and just running full sprint. Clearing the land of rain at full sprint would take more than six or seven days, maybe three or four if he didn't stop for a break in-between. Something he could do without too much effort.

He had decided against it.

So now, he sat in front of a small fire, slowly eating the broth of fish and vegetables the old woman had managed to cobble together as his clothes warmed not too far from the flames. Despite it's humble beginnings Naruto, could say with a smile on his face that it was good eatings.

"So granny…"

"My Names not Granny, Boyo," she called out.

"My Names not Boy."

She laughed, and Naruto, not being able to help it, laughed along with her. He was likening this old woman. She was lovely in the best kind of way.

"My name is Uzumaki Ren."

Naruto smiled at her name, while also contemplating what to call himself. He couldn't use his own name, it was too unique and any resemblance would cause problems for him later on.

"Uzumaki Arashi, it's nice to meet you swirling water lily."

She smiled at him. "I can assure you the same thing swirling storm."

She handed over a small scroll, and Naruto sent a questioning gaze her way.

"That scroll can only be opened by Uzumaki blood."

He got the gist of her message, and after quickly biting his thumb he rubbed it on the scroll's locking seal. With a poof it opened up, and her elderly smile widened.

"So what brings a lost child of the swirling tide to the land of falling rains?" She asked. He liked the way she talked, it was… intriguing. She talked in a pattern, to a set beat. One two, one three, one two three, a strange beat that created a unique rhythmic flow.

"Fate…the winds?"

She laughed. "So, you're a drifter?"

"Yes, you could say that. I've been all over the elemental countries." A half-truth, the best kind of lie. Ren seemed like a sweet old lady, but the years had bred a strong sense of paranoia in him.

"Ahh, to be young with the wish to see the world. I wish my old bones would let me move around the way I once could. Tell me have you been to see Uzu No Kunia yet?"

Briefly the name of his clan's home village popped into his mind. He hadn't thougt of or considered the village, well…ever. Maybe once or twice when he'd found out about his clan, but other than that, the island village hadn't really crossed his mind at all.

"Hmm…no. Not at all really?"

She smiled at him knowingly. "I suggest you do. The island hides secrets of our clan, if one can get past the traps we laid before we few survivors left."

"Why tell me this?"

"Is it not the job of the old to share with the young." The flames of the small fire lit up her smile, and Naruto had to admit it was infectious. It would seem his luck had played out for him.

"Thanks!"

"So, what's got you down Arashi?"

"What?"

Ren smiled a soft smile. Hey grey blye eyes stared into his own pool of deep sea blue. Those eyes seemed to carry a weight with them that, seemed so…so lost. So depressed and tired. So _tired. _Eyes to tired for someone so young.

"Your depressed, tired, your eyes show it. Your chakra sings with your emotions. Your sad, and from the blood stains on your clothes you were recently in a fight. A terrible, terrible fight."

"Yeah, I was in a fight. Though…I can't decide if I won or lost. Though, I guess time will tell. And im not depressed, but I am tired. Life's hard, and….sometimes you just want to sit down and take a long break from it. But I can't do that, I've got people that rely on me. So, despite being tired, despite the world being tough, I just…I gotta keep on going."

She nodded at his words, she understood, maybe too much. "Every man has his own burdens, its how he bears them that matters. You bear them like a true Uzumaki man."

She looked into the flames, her eyes drifting to places far away.

" You can spend the rest of the night with me, after that you have to leave, I've fixed up your clothes so you don't have to worry about them too much. Sadly I don't feel too comfortably keeping you here for extended periods of time. The ame-nin tends to scrounge these border towns pretty consistently. If they found you, well…I'm sure you're drifting lifestyle would be affected. And my life would be effected in the manner that I wouldn't have one." She laughed at the statement, apparently finding humor in speaking of her own death.

"But…I have something for you. Something I'm sure you'd be able to put to better use than this old bugger." She walked away and came back yet again with another scroll. This one easily was as large as Naruto, and he couldn't help but to wonder at her strength despite her age.

"I saved this as Kumo-nin stormed the beaches. Pulled this right out the clan vaults at the last second. I don't have anywhere near the reserves to use this, and I was too old to have kids when I grabbed it. Just the idea of some Kumo bastards maybe getting this…" She frowned, her old wrinkled face twisting into a snarl as she spoke.

She unrolled it, and Naruto cast a cursory glance at it. His breath caught in his throat. It was a summoning contract, and not just any summoning contract, this thing was archaic. The seal work for this thing was as old as the sage of six paths or at least dateing back to his era. Hundreds of archaic seals interlinked together. Idly, he wondered what it summoned.

"What…what does it summon?"

Ren smiled at him, her smile a wide, wonderful thing. He idly wondered if the ear-to-ear smile was an Uzumaki trait.

"It summons..."

xxx-xxxx-xxx

Naruto sat crossed legged. His face was scrunched into a mask of annoyance. His eyes watched the city below him while his mind contemplated his options. It had taken him four days to leave the land of rain after bidding good bye to the old Uzumaki named Ren. It had also taken him another five days to reach the border town of Kanagawa. Sitting on the border of the land of rain, fire, and river, it was an economic hot zone. It was a gambling town, a place with loose laws, and looser morals. The perfect place to stop and think for a while.

"**You have a plan yet?"**

"The working girls."

"**I don't think getting your rocks off will help us."**

"Stop being a smart ass bastard. The working girls are in all the major cities in the elemental nations. If what I remember from the pervert sage is right for the past thirty years the major brothels of the elemental nations have all been run by the same person."

"**Since people tend to blab when their getting their rocks off…"**

Naruto smiled. His face spreading into a wide grin as the Kyuubi reached the same conclusion as him.

"I'll have a source of information in order for me to work with. I'll be able to watch, and get a better grasp of my actions and the resulting changes I'm bound to make. I can't directly get involved with the ninja villages, especially Konoha. I can't exactly claim I'm a future version of myself. It's ludicrous, and even if I could somehow prove who I am…well I doubt things would go as simply as I want them too. I'm far kinder than the Sandaime was, and even I'd keep me locked up in order to ascertain information about the future. I'd prefer not to be bound and tied up, my mind used as nothing more than a information mine."

"**So, how are you going to use the working girls?" **

Naruto frowned at Kyuubi's words. He wasn't using the working girls, quite the opposite. What he had planned would benefit them, or at least wouldn't harm them.

"If I can find who runs the brothels, I'm not sure if it's a man or a group going by one name, but If I can find out who, I can start to act. Maybe even find a way to improve the life of my younger self."

"**All a sound plan, but, how are we to find the puppet master?"**

Naruto smiled and sat back. A devious smirk on his face. A hand sign, and a poof of chakra smoke and a clone appeared not to him. It morphed using his strange transformation technique and before him stood a tall voluptuous blond of a woman. Her hair was a rich sunlight yellow, and her eyes a deep ocean blue. He got up and walked over to her, and pulled out an ink brush and seal kit. Slowly he started to inscribe a reinforcement seal onto her? Or was it his, stomach.

"Stop! That tickles." A seductively feminine voice called out to him. He shuddered.

"Hold still, I've gotta reinforce you. Can't have you disappearing for no reason now can I?"

"I..don't feel comfortable with this."

He smiled at himself. He could understand his own hesitation, but with time this…him would fall into the routine of things. She'd come to see herself as a she, hopefully, and things would get easier.

"Yeah…it's not something I'm comfortable with either. But it's the only way for us to be able to find who's running the show. Remember, it's all for everyone else. So why not take one for the team?"

She smiled at him, and he laughed.

"I guess so." Her voice was like a melody. A sweet whisper backed by thousands of little wind chimes.

"Theres no I in team!"

"**You're going to use a clone as a working girl."**

"The fastest way to find who pulls the strings is to be a part of the web. Besides its not just a clone, she's reinforced. Hell more than reinforced, she's a breathing, sweating, bleeding copy of me…that's female."

"**Hmm, so she finds out who's pulling the strings while you're doing what exactly?"**

"Ren made me curious about Uzu no Kunia. During the war it was mentioned a bit, but I never had a reason, or need to visit. But, if that sealing scroll is a hint of what's locked away in the land of swirling tides then it worth a visit. I could find something useful."

"**A solid plan."**

"It's mostly short term though. If," he stopped to come up with a name for his female clone. " If Atsuko can come up with what we're looking for then we can make our plans afterward."

He looked at his female clone, and pulled a small scroll from one of his pockets. He ran his thumb over the scroll and a second after a fat roll of ryu appeared in his hand. He handed the roll to Atsuko.

"That should be enough to get you around for the next few weeks until you get picked up by one of the more prestigious houses. The houses can be found by a red banner in groused with a blue turtle insignia. If I remember right…the house in Kanagawa should be on the edge of the redlight district, next to the market district."

"Alright, I guess we'll meet up in a couple weeks when you return from Uzu No Kunia?"

Naruto high fived Atsuko, and then, both disappeared in a blur of speed.

xxx-xxx-xxx

Uzu No Kunia was dead. A barren wasteland that was slowly eroding into a pitfield of sand. It was bereft of life, devoid of existence, it was as if some vengeful god had come down, and smitten the small island with the greatest of curses. Stolen from the land _life _itself, and had chosen to zealously, and jealously harbor what it had stolen, forcefully, to its breast. But some god hadn't come to Uzu No Kunai and cursed it. Naruto could tell, with horror and abhorrence, with acrimony and spite, _exactly_ what had happened here.

His family, his clan had been brilliant, or mad, or perhaps a horrid combination of the two. Mad in their brilliance, for they had done something he'd never thought possible. They'd done _something_, for he wasn't sure _what _they'd done, but it was horrible in it's inception. Horrid in it application. He'd never felt something like this before. Even in the deserts of Suna, even in that seemingly dead land of sands and blistering heat, followed by a cold that shouldn't have been possible in a dessert, there had _at least been life. _

Life teeming and hiding, life beneath the sand, or scuttling in the small shades of dunes. Life hiding beneath the hard packed earth and swimming in the loose grit sand.

Yet, here, In Uzu no Kunia, _there was no life. _ Nothing lived here. No plant, no insect, even the waters that surrounded the island that should have been teeming with fish was denied the sweet bliss of life.

All that was left in Uzu no Kunia were the dead.

The bodies of the Uzumaki that had fought to the last soul. The bodies, bodies, bodies. Bleached white from the sun, weathered from rains that fell, and sands that now battered at them, slowly but surely eating away at them. The buildings held firm, white and cream, tainted with the filthy reddish brown of the blood of the thousands that had died defending this land.

When the Uzumaki had died, they'd made sure Uzu no Kunia had died with it.

He fell to his knees, his fingers pressing into his palm. The red scarlet of his blood dripped into the sand. And he felt in aghast horror, as what little chakra, and nature chakra was stolen, ripped from the droplet of blood, and…sealed? Yes, _sealed _away.

His family had done something awful. They'd stolen nature chakra from nature. Their bodies lay there, mummified from heat, but preserved from the sheer fact that even bacteria needed nature chakra to live. Their faces masks of solidarity, and grim determination.

He felt a little proud, despite the horror at what they'd done.

"**Good god."**

"Yea, fucking crazy."

"**I'm not too surprised. Your branch of the human race was always eccentric. Though, they would never do something quite as extreme as this out of...spite."**

"No, I can sense what they've got working here. Whatever this is….its, it's…"

"**It's something else. To seal all the nature chakra surrounding the island, and to keep other Nautre chakra from getting in…Be careful Naruto. Tread lightly."**

xxx-xxx-xxx`

**This chapter is over. I don't really have anything to say other than "Other worlds" is still being a bitch. The fucking things got me in a writer block i can't get over. It's fucking annoying as shit is what it is. I hope you guys liked this. Oh well. I'm off to bash my head against a wall untill other worlds stars working in my brain again. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Read and review. I do read reviews, also favs and follow please. Second chapter to The waves of time. This one was fun to write, and good news im over my writers block on other worlds. Byt the end of the week a new chapter will finally be out. So…yay you! Im looking for a beta. The truth is when I write I tend to write all 3.7k words in a one or two hour period. Doing this of course means that there is bound to be some spelling errors and what not. I'd love a beta to just go over it and fix mistakes I make. I try to spot spelling errors and whatnot on my own, but the simple thing is my mind will tend to gloss over the non obvious stuff…its just the way my brain works. Some of you came from my story "other worlds" and to those people thanks for sticking with me. I appreciate it. **

**On a side note be on the lookout for another story…well its not a story, its more of a collection of one shots and story ideas that im planning to publish. Their ideas, that won't go anywhere, but will hopefully be fun for you guys to read and like. **

**xxx-xxxx-xxx**

Where Uzu no Kunia was dead many, many miles away Kanagawa was alive. It was vibrant, a seemingly living breathing entity. It bustled with activity, its peoples were its life blood, and its market stalls its organs. Atsuko _loved _it. The war had taken life from the elemental nations, taken the joy, and happiness, and just…just life, not life living. Yes the war had stolen many lives, but perhaps its greatest theft was the act of living. But here, thirteen years in the past, people still _lived_ in that exciting, wonderful, human sort of way.

Atsuko walked slowly through Kanagawa, taking in the sights, the people, the smells of food, and, she sniffed, ramen. Glorious food of the gods. He, or perhaps she, yes it would probably be better to refer to himself as a she, followed her nose. It was sweet, the smell of chicken, pork, beef, all brewing with vegetables. It made her smile, and she followed the smell by nose.

She found it. Nestled in a back alley, between a small market store, and a run-down fabric shop the stand was humble. The stools were loose and wobbly as he sat, the stand was made from old, hardened wood, and creaked as she placed her soft hands on the countertop. She smiled at the old man behind the bar, and let out a light giggle when he flushed a bright red in response. He seemed to hurry about the kitchen now that she had appeared, running around trying his best to get things in order and prepare the meal.

"What can I get you sweetheart?"

She smiled once more at the old man, this time with a wider toothed grin. "Tell me what's your special Oji-san."

"Well, todays special is the pork ramen. It comes with a side of wagashi and freshly brewed mint tea."

"That sounds perfect. I'll take two bowls of pork, a cup of the tea, and three plates of wagashi." He seemed surprised at her request but dutifully filled out her order.

"You've got a big appetite for such a little woman."

She laughed. "I've been traveling for a few days now. I've only had the bare essentials to eat while I've been out. I just arrived in town earlier today. Was walking around looking for a place to eat when I smelled this place out. Your food smells heavenly; I hope it tastes as good as it smells."

The old man nodded in understanding, and twin bowls of ramen appeared before her with a pair of chopsticks. She mumbled a quick thanks, and hungrily began to dig in. She'd finished one bowl in a couple minutes, and only stopped because the old man spoke to her one more.

"Slow down sweet heart," she interrupted mid sentence. "Atsuko."

"Huh?"

"Atsuko, my name is Atsuko."

He nodded his head in confirmation that he had heard. "Atsuko….what a sweet name. So Atsuko-chan what are you doing in town?"

She started her second bowl, made sure she had taken a bite and swallowed; she answered. "I came looking for someone, a friend of mine. He said he'd meet me here soon but, I haven't heard from him in a while. I'm looking for a place to stay, just incase he tries to contact me."

The old man smiled at her. "Well I hope you find him."

Atsuko nodded in confirmation and finished the rest of her meal. She pulled out her purse, paid the man and started to walk away. She smiled when she noticed the men in the shadows start to follow her. She'd hadn't expected the ramen shop to be a scouting place, and the old man didn't seem like the type to be in that type of business. But when she'd sensed the forms surrounding her, she knew what was about to go down.

She was about to be propositioned. She'd likely be coerced into thinking about joining the local working houses. They'd give her a couple weeks, and if she said no, they'd just kidnap her and sell her into the slave trade market.

A wholly unpleasant experience all around.

That was only if she didn't accept of course. She _was _going to accept. She needed too, though, she wondered idly how she was to play this off. She continued walking, taking back alleyways and even darker corridors as she did so. Then, suddenly somebody appeared in front of her. A brick wall of muscle that stood at least a half a foot overhead. She was a tall gal at five foot ten and the man still managed to tower over her. Any other woman would have been afraid, but she knew without a doubt she held the upper hand here.

She looked up at the giant before her. "Can…can I help you?" She made sure her voice held a twinge of fear.

"You know, for such a cute thing to be alone in a city like this…." Big burly hands came up and gripped onto her chin. She fought the reflex to break the hand from the unwanted touch.

"I'm fine. I'm just looking for a place to stay." She seemed resistant, if she was too willing they'd get suspicious.

"Well, we can help you with that." He made his voice deeper. "Just follow us, and we'll show you somewhere safe to spend the night."

She nodded her displeasure. "I, I don't want to do that."

His hand landed forcibly on her shoulder, and internally Atsuko smiled. Hook line and sinker. Things were going just how she knew they would. She didn't think it would take only a day, but then again, who was she to question her good luck? You couldn't look a gift horse in the mouth after all.

"Come on, you don't trust us? We can get you a real nice place to live. All the food you could want. Nice, cozy, easy living."

"R-really?" Reluctantly, she had to play this reluctantly, make it seem as if they were scaring her. As if she was desperate to be saved. Sometimes people were too easy to manipulate.

Yes," his hand slowly ran over her cheek, and she and to stop a grimace as she smelt the rank, rancid stench of his breath. " You just have to follow us." The hands on his shoulder pressed harder, and slowly started to lead her away, deeper into the dark alleys of Kanagawa.

xxx-xxx-xxx

Slowly, carefully Naruto walked through the ruins of Uzu no Kunia. His face a mask of anger and frustration. He'd expected his family to hid whatever secrets they held zealously, but he didn't think it would be this hard to find. He'd searched countless building over the past few days, and nothing had appeared. No clue, no hints, just the dead bodies, the blood, and dead, dead, Island bereft of life.

"God, damn it."

"**Of course you clan would guard its secrets so well. To do what they've done here…I wonder what true monstrosities they created."**

Naruto sat atop the tallest building in Uzu no Kunai, a bamboo fisherman's hat he'd pilfered from one of Uzu's abandoned docks sat atop his head. His blue eyes stared out at the white, and cream buildings. His face one of concentration and anger.

"**Have you checked the grave yards?"**

"You want me to ransack the graves of my family?"

"**Your species tend to have a reverence for the bodies of the deceased that others do not. Your grave sites, especially those of your clans tend to highly guarded. The Uchiha kept their sacred shrine near their entrance to their graveyards did they not. It would not hurt to have a look."**

Naruto let out a deep sigh. His eyes looked out at the island of dead bodies, the thick brown red dirt that now coated all of Uzu no Kunai half covering them. Their weapons lay where they fell, and Naruto couldn't help but to realize in some way, that this _was _a grave year. The entire island a monument to the death of his kin. To the genocide of the Uzumaki.

"I'll take a look."

He jumped from the tower, twisting his body as he did so and landed without a sound onto the soft cushion of sand. He leapt again landing on one of the buildings in order to avoid the ground. Bodies littered the ground, and walking on the earth of Uzu no Kunai felt like he was committing some great sin. Performing some great abomination by walking the same earth that his family had fought to the death for. That nearly every man, woman, and child that had lived in Uzu no Kunai at the time had given their life for. He leapt from building to building, long powerful strides that let hip leap four or five building at the same time. After a couple minute he'd arrived.

The Uzumaki graveyard wasn't much of a graveyard as a catacomb. A large shrine covered in now melted candles wax and the ash from long burnt incense was its entrance. The shrine was twenty feet high, and the winds and rain had turned its once bright pillars into a dull faded pink. With caution Naruto walked through the entrance, and started his descent. As he got farther down he noted that seals slowly started to activate as he moved. A faint light blue glow lit the dark hallways of the Uzumaki catacombs, and Naruto idly noted the wrapped bodies preserved by the same intricate seal matrix.

The deeper he went the less the light shone. He'd been walking slowly, and carefully for some time now. About an hour or two before he finally found something of interest.

"I think this may be it."

"**There's a lot of Nature chakra going In that seal. But it's only a fraction of what should be in uzu No kunai."**

"It's probably a safeguard then. Meant to those who shouldn't be here out of here. Hmm..." Naruto looked at the seal engraved into the obsidian colored rock in front of him. He held a rasengan in one hand to provide light and he observed, the light from the seals had disappeared long ago. "There's a blood function in this seal, it seems to be relatively generic, but it also requires...nature chakra?" Naruto was surprised.

One would need Nature chakra to open this seal. Nature chakra users were rare, though knowing what his clan had done it wouldn't be too far a stretch to image they had knowledge of Nature chakra and its possible applications.

'It's also reinforcing the walls behind it." He whistled. "Their using a dimensional pocket to add mass to the back of the wall. I bed it's only a few inches thick, but with that dimensional pocket trying to get through this by force would be like trying to drill your way through a mountain of iron with your bare hands."

He stepped back, and closed his eyes. Expanding his senses. He reached out searching, nothing. Uzu no Kunai was still dead. He reached further beyond the island, further and further. He'd found it. A mile off shore, Nature chakra, he latched onto it and tried to pull it it. The island stole it.

"Fuck."

He calmed his breathing, reached out again and grabbed more. Far more than he knew he'd be able to handle. As it came in the island stole it. Greedily grabbing and taking, by the time it reached him there was almost none left. A bucket of nature chakra after taking nearly a sea's worth.

He bit his thumb, charged his hand with Nature Chakra and slammed it into the seal. The seal glowed a deep luminescent green, then, suddenly, the rock wall crumbled, shattering like glass and opening was revealed.

"**Your clan has a pension for flare. To create or use something like this is needless, even if it quite beautiful."**

Naruto smiled at the Kyuubi's words. "What can I say, the Uzumaki are awesome."

His blue eyes looked at cave entrance. The walls were coated in fuuinjutsu. Every inch covered in millions upon millions of lines of seal script. Each one glowed either a rich deep blue, or a vibrant green. They moved, skirting across the walls, floors, and ceilings. In the center of the cave was small lake, one that was constantly spiriting, a little whirlpool. On top of the lake was a stone pillar, a large black monolith of obsidian. From it, the stone that is, exuded the green glow of Nature chakra.

"That stone..."

"**That's where all the Nature chakra is being funneled. The stone is a catalyst for the Nature chakra, the insanely complex living seal is its support." **

"I think that's what we're looking for."

Naruto leapt forward, clearing most of the water and landing in the center of the whirlpool. The water slapped against his feet as he stood in front of the stone. He spotted another blood seal and bit his finger again. Smearing the blood against the stone it glowed.

Then his world fell to black.

Xxx-xxx-xxx

In the void he heard the voices of thousands. Thousands and thousands of men, women, and children all calling out to him in the void, from the real with nothing. But one voice stood out. It wasn't domineering, or demanding. It wasn't deep or commanding. It was calm, slow, a deliberate voice that spoke with authority and leadership. It called out to him, somehow drew him, to it.

"_Finally someone comes for the heritage of the Uzumaki."_

"Hello?"

"_Hello." _He could feel the voice smile at him. The tone soft and mild, yet inviting and wonderful. _"We welcome you home, lost child of the Uzumaki. A great hug from your kin beyond the grave."_

"Hello. It's…it's nice to meet you too." It was strange, talking to an ethereal voice in a black void.

"_You came seeking our knowledge and the secrets of the clan didn't you?"_

"Yes."

"_Hmm….so forward. There are certain secrets held by the Uzumaki that cannot come to light. Certain techniques and abilities that must die with our clan. The greatest of monstrosities are made from the humblest and best of intentions. Such things will stay with us. But others…"_

In the darkness he saw flashes of light. Bright white lines of seal script that leapt and skirted across the void without aim or direction. Slowly forming and spiraling around him as he watched.

"_The monolith holds all our knowledge. The entire history of Uzu no Kunia and our clan is held in that stone."_

The lines dances faster. Spinning now and jerking from left to right in a maddening haste. He could faintly feel his body outside the void. Feel the sting and burn as _something _was done to him.

"_You can use what we give you as you wish, but power isn't free. And knowledge is power. Everything comes with a price. Uzu must keep her secrets guarded, the clan must keep her secrets to herself."_

The seals were burning into his skin. Searing its way into his flesh. Knowledge flowed into his mind, and a history of a people he only knew by name flowed into his mind. The birthing of Uzu, the frist forays of the clan into the then archaic and unknown art of fuuinjutsu. The rise of a small island nation into a superpower, then its fall years later. The last stand of a people unwilling to leave the land they had had had spent years living on.

It was heartwarming, and yet heart wrenching at the same time. Then came the knowledge, the burning, searing knowledge that burned into his skull. His clan had specialized in clan, it was their life blood, and they had proliferated the limited knowledge at the time, studied and studied, and had helped turn an obscure part of the ninja world into an art that was feared, and known around the world. The very basics of fuuinjutsu as he had learned it.

Then he felt it, a forlorn feeling of doom boring down on him. A sickening feeling of guilt and dread boring into his skull. For a moment he couldn't think of anything else. He felt awful, as if he'd committed some great unforgivable sin. Then the voice returned, but it _wasn't _the same voice. It was deeper, more sinister, boring into his soul with its very words.

"_**You come a seeking knowledge. Coming here to the land of the swirling tides to find 'er secrets. Gona go out an' do you some deeds. Mighty big plans, changin' the world, little man, tiny man, trying to play hero. Take wha' he ain't earned, and share it. Loose wha' the clan don worked for. Comin through time to save tha' world."**_ The voice laughed and it was a retched thing. A deep yet somehow high-pitched cackle that that seemed to resonate in his mind. His writs were aflame, burning with a passion he'd never thought possible. He felt blood pool into his mouth, the taste of iron in his mouth. Was he bleeding? He felt a clawed hand drag its way across his face.

"_Consider him…an insurance. Uzu was slayed for her secrets, that voice will make it sure that Uzu's enemies never get her secrets. He could be considered your personal devil, appearing whenever you think of spilling our secrets. Whenever you try to give the knowledge of the Uzumaki to someone not of our blood. And when they get our knowledge they get a version of it too. An insurance to keep what we died for from falling into the hands of those who killed us. Uzu's secrets will remain hers well after she is died."_

"_**Killin, and killin. Blood seeping and drying and spillin. Touching the earth, the little land drinking and sucking and eating the people that loved her. Secrets kept, secrets hoarded and hard earned. Secrets, secrets, secrets, enough to be killed. Enough to wipe out the little people. Till a little one came a lookin' for em' secrets. A smart lil one, knew how to read, open a locked door and learned the secrets…but to share em secrets… No! Secret's learned are still secrets." **_The voice was laughing again. He was writhing in pain, it's laughter seemingly mocking him, tormenting him.

"_**Keep em secrets boy. Keep em secrets…Sink the land of swirlin' tides. Send it a fallin', and a fallin' beneath the waves."**_

"_Sink the island."_

Then it stopped. The whirling seals were gone, the voices that echoed in his mind had stopped speaking. He was back in the cave, the seals still glowed overhead, but where a giant whirlpool had surrounded the podium that held the monolith now a simple pool of still water stood. He wearily stood to his feet.

"**Naruto…what happened?"**

"I'm not sure…but…" He stopped as knowledge flowed into his mind. Advanced fuinjutsu theory, seals he'd never seen before yet, somehow, he _knew_ what they did. He understood them like he understood the rasengan. He knew them like he knew the back of his hand. It was an instinctive thing, like a memory long gone, yet still vividly remembered, without context.

"Let's get the hell out of here. I know, what all those seals are for, and were going to want to be as far away from here as possible when I fully activate them."

"**Mind clueing me in on what you're planning on doing?"**

"I'm going to sink the island. When I blacked out, things….knowledge got burned into my mind. Voices spoke to me," he spoke calmly as he sprinted out of the caverns, and the catacombs. He leapt from the shrine, and landed softly onto the hard packed earth. He cast his eyes skyward, thick storm clouds were looming overhead. He grimaced, he'd have to be careful when sprinting across the ocean, to do it during clear sky's was tedious enough, but when the waves were being jostled from the might of a storm…he sighed.

"_**Keep em secrets, hold em tight."**_He shuddered at the voice. A new demon in his mind.

He sprinted forward, pushing chakra to his feet to boost himself and clear as much distance as possible. Seals flashed in his mind, and without him even realizing it his hands were flashing through hand seals. The sequence was long and arduous and he felt portions of his chakra pouring into the earth even as he ran. One hundred seals, he moved faster picking up pace. Two hundred seals, he'd cleared the island, landing with a deft splash on the water's surface. Three hundred seals, he looked skywards again as the storm seemed to collide with itself, smashing and churning in the skies above. Bolts of blue white light streaked across the sky, and thunder roared in their wake.

Four hundred seals, his hands were going numb, and the island of Uzu no Kunia shuddered. Five hundred and thirty two seals, he stopped. The island shook, it seemed to roar in defiance of its death. As if it _knew_ what was to come. The ocean swelled, a great torrent of water rose, and towered over him. A sudden tsunami birthed from nowhere that loomed overhead, a living, moving wall of water. It crashed down, the earth shook, and for a moment Naruto breath the cold, salt water of the oceans of Uzu. Then air rushed back into his lungs as he surfaced. He looked around, and Uzu no kunai was gone. Slowly he stood up on the water's surface. Turning just in time to feel a pulse of pure nature chakra rush out from where Uzu now lay beneath the waves, and to see a brilliant beam of green tinted white light zoom up and touch the sky.

The light pierced the clouds overhead, punching through the storm, and for a brief moment revealing the blue skies that lay above the storm. Naruto held his breath at the sight, a memory that would be held in his mind for the rest of his life..

"Beautiful."

"**Like I said your clan always had a way for theatrics. I have no doubt that was felt, or seen all throughout the elemental nations. The last hurrah of a clan that birthed people like you" **

Naruto watched as the light faded, and stared down as the waves seemed to start to twist and turn. Slowly funneling itself into…a whirlpool. He sprinted further away as the pull of the pool grew stronger. Soon he was sprinting across the waves, running full speed to reach land.

"**I think that trip was worth it. We don't know exactly what you learned, but if that was even close…we definitely have a greater chance of changing things now."**

**xxxx-xxx-xxxx**

**End. Goddamn, this one took longer to write than I planned. I managed to finally get over my writers block on "Other worlds, So expect an update on that by the end of the week. Next chapter things pick up. And important people start going into motion. As for the Uzu scene. Some might not like it, some might. It's necessary though. It allowed me to introduce a character that will play an important role to the story, and I'm sure some will love. **

**On a side note, I realized some of you like the way I write fight scenes…how you would like if I wrote a story of just fight scenes. I'm thinking of doing that. Just fight scenes to get those epic ideas out of my head. Yeah…ima do that. I'll work on that tomorrow. **


	3. Chapter 3

**At 3.8k words this is a shorter chapter than I Normally plan to write for this story, but this chapter needs to be short. It's more of a transition chapter so length isn't an issue. It's to move the story to a point I want it at. On other note….what the hell happened? Like what happened? This story got like 50-60 follow and more than 50+ fav's in a two day period and I haven't updated it in a while. I also had the pleasure of getting a flame. Its weird, I haven't been flamed in a long time so I didn't know how to react, so I just laughed and moved on. I wrote this while watching game of thrones. **

**Tyrion is by far my favorite character. Wonderful chap. I'd like to say thank you for all your favs and follows, and please review, I do read them and take them into consideration. Hell you can even pm me if you wish. **

**Seriously though, go watch game of thrones. Its gooder than hell. **

**xxx-xx-xxx**

"Look at me." Naruto voice was hard, and it carried the chilled icy tone of someone who had far more experience doing this than they wished they did. His hands were clean, pristine and unmarred despite the blood that lay on the floor.

"Fuck you." Yuto Takuya was a large man. When he stood he was six foot eight, and weighed over two hundred and ninety pounds of pure muscle. His arms were covered in scars of varying severity and depths. His eyes were cold, pools of deep brown that showed a type of ferocity and subtle hatred for their fellow man that could only be gained from spending nearly your entire life at the bottom of the social ladder. So it was no surprise to Naruto that Yuto didn't break easily.

Naruto gripped Yuto's chin, the thin stubble brushing up roughly against his psalm as he did so. He turned the man's face to him, his own blue pools staring into pits of dark almost black brown. Yuto looked fierce, and for an instance a defiant grin appeared on his face.

"I said fuck you."

Naruto sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Soft blond hair pressed to the back of his head and he let out a dejected sigh. The seal on his hand burned like a fresh brand, and a voice that was new to his mind echoed its opinion in one matter.

"_**Cut out his tongue, leave him talkin, and talkin, with mumbled words an' half a tongue. Take em' secrets from his mind, and leave em death, dumb, and stupid."**_

A ghost of a seal appeared in his mind with a vague reference to its purpose. He shuddered, as it developed. A seal that stole all the knowledge from the mind of whoever it was applied to, with the side effect of lobotomizing whomever it was applied too.

"_**You know you want to boy. So easy…" **_He felt the ghost of a claw slowly scratch its way up his face. Thin hard nails were scratching against his hands, running up his back, the ghost of a whisper, of a breath of hot rancid air pressing against his neck and ear. He pushed it off, ignoring the voice and doing the best to keep it in the back of his mind.

He looked back at Yuto. The man was strapped in his chair, his body unmoving other than the slow rise and fall of his chest. A cold sweat was falling from face and into his eyes. He could blink, and breath, but that was about it. The most movement he could do with a class three-paralysis seal strapped onto him. Naruto picked up a bobby pin, and looked at it casually. Senbon were expensive, and for what he had planned unnecessary. He looked at Yuto one more time.

"There are two seals on you. The first is a pretty complex one; it's a paralysis seal. Its placed on the base of your neck and scrambles the bioelectric signals your brain sends down your spine and too your limbs to move. You can try to move, but…you find that impossible. It's a class three," he stopped and smiled at Yuto. "What that means is it stops all movement other than the bare necessities for you to live, and talk. So you can breath, and your heart still beats, and you can talk but that's about it. The second seal; well….that ones more insidious, and while not as complex is far, far worse for you in the long wrong."

"I'm not scared of you and I'm not going to talk.."

Naruto nodded. He'd done this before, and judging from his scars Yuto had without a doubt been tortured before. But Naruto wasn't a brute, he didn't just cut and burn, he had more…finesse, more reasonable tastes when it came to this sort of thing. And while the bodies of Yutos men lay around him, he had every intention of keeping the giant of a man alive.

"The second one could be considered an amplifier. There are thresholds to what we can comfortably feel…too much of a good thing become a bad thing after all, and too much of a bad thing is a horrible thing."

He made a hand sign, and Yuto, let out a quiet gasp. Naruto frowned at what he was about to do.

"Before I do this, I'll give you one more chance to talk."

"Go to hell."

He sighed, placed the pin between his fingers and slowly drove it through Yuto's hand. As soon as it had pierced the man's flesh he was screaming. A loud, yet shrill sound that echoed throughout the vast yet empty room. It sounded horrible, the primal painful screams of someone experiencing something unbelievably excruciating. He pushed deeper, and Yuto screams became louder, more primal and horrid.

"Are you going to talk?"

"Fuck off you piece of shit."

Naruto sighed once more, and grabbed a second pin. "Look, all I want to know is who's running the show. Your pretty high up, but you're not at the top, you answer to somebody, all I want to know is who that person is and where they are. You're the boss for Kanagawa, but that's not where this whole thing ends. There's somebody higher, always somebody higher. Just spill the beans and i'll stop this." He placed a second pin above Yuto's arm and began to push.

He screamed again.

"Just tell me…"

Tears streamed down the man's face, a reflexive thing from pain as his body couldn't spasm in response to the sheer overload of pain he was experiencing. To Yuto it felt as if those tiny pinpricks were molten balls of lead, each one peeling and shearing, and burning its way through each individual cell it touched.

"I…." He stopped for a moment, taking deep breaths to try and teal with eh pain. "I won't say shit."

Naruto sighed in response. He pulled a kunai out of his pocket and stabbed it into Yuto's thigh. He screamed, no that wasn't an appropriate words. Yuto howled, he screamed a primal type of scream used only to portray absolute anguish. The type of howl beasts that could _feel, _that could emphasize despite their small brains and simple. Beasts that felt more purely than man and his complex emotions and so a loss to them, despite them not being able to remember that loss months or even days later, was a loss beyond comprehension. Yuto screamed, he howled as his blood pooled to the floor, and his eyes shed salty tears.

The pain was incomprehensible. Something the mind could barely grasp, every ounce of thought power dedicated to processing pain, and only pain. No thoughts just that one primal powerful sensation.

Naruto felt awful when he heard it. But he steeled himself; he knew what this was for. The image of a three year old him flashed into his mind. Alone, and sad, so alone and so sad, starring as the other children played and ignored him.

So in the face of that image what was a little pain to others?

Blood was pooling below Yuto's feet and slowly dripping down his chair. Naruto sighed and ran a hand through his blond hair once more.

"**Naruto, do you want my help?"**

"_**Usin' a demon to do em deeds boy? Big old traveler, swimming against em waves of time need a demon to do his dirty work. Keeping himself high an mighty…" **_Naruto grunted in frustration, and ignored both the voice in his head, and the demon whom he called friend. He raised his killing intent and bore it full force on yuto.

"Tell me who runs the blue tortoise prostitution ring. Don't lie to me." He growled down at Yuto. The man sobbed to himself because the pain had overcome him, tears freely flowed down his cheeks. His eyes were red, and his lips quivered.

"I, I don't know. I know who's above me and that it, he's called Daichi. He lives in Tanzaku Gai. The blue tortoise house there is a casino and brothel house. He lives on the top floor, in a private sweet. He runs the brothel, and works with a member of the yakuza to run the casino. That all I know…please, please stop."

Naruto smiled down at the man. His face a wide toothed grin. The killing intent let up, and he ripped the kunai out of Yuto's leg. The man screamed, and he slammed the kunai into his head, killing him. He flicked the blood onto the floor, and started to walk out of the small fortified home nestled in the bosom of the market district of Kanagawa. He exited the building into a dark street, and then slowly slipped into an alleyway adjacent of the building.

"Did you kill him?" He turned to the soft voice of Atsuko. Her face was calm and she was eating a bowl of ramen as she leaned against the wall of the alley.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because he'll get ten time worse than what I did to him if I let him live. It was a mercy killing, the Yakuza and underground elements like them don't like rats. Silence is golden after all."

"So where are we headed?"

He turned to Atsuko and swiped the bowl from her, stuffing his face with some of the noodles before placing it back in her hands. She huffed sent a swift kick to his shin, and he let out a silent curse as it hit true.

"Let's go get something to eat, well talk about it after."

"I know a good ramen place, found it after the first day, the old guy was kind of a disappointment though, he marked gals for the big guys to 'persuade' into joining the blue tortoise. Found out he's more or less forced into it, guy's got no spine, and is lacking in the balls area as well."

They both laughed at the joke, and headed off to it.

"So how bad did you do him in, before you know…"

"Before I killed him. It wasn't a full blow interrogation, only took about twenty minutes, I don't think he's had much experience with ninja based techniques before."

"Probably not, the Yakuza type, especially the low ranked ones tend to stay, and try to stay, as far away as possible from the attentions of ninja as possible."

"I know that, I'm you after all."

Naruto grunted in acknowledgement and the two kept walking.

xx-xxxx-xxxx

Naruto sat preciously atop one of the many trees in the forests that surrounded Kanagawa. The evening sun peeked through the tree, and the smells from the city, the smells of food, and of people filtering through to him. He smiled wistfully as he overlooked the forests, and could see the tallest peaks of the buildings of Kanagawa. In his hand he held a deed to the local branch of the blue tortoise, a transfer of ownership for questionably acquired, and a bowl of ramen. His eyes scanned the forest before returning back to the papers at hand.

"Isn't this…a little obvious."

"Of course it is, but we want it to be obvious. Look, we're taking on a multinational information gathering source. If one of their bases of operations comes under new management they'll notice, and they'll want to deal with it, because everyone else will notice too. I'm banking on that."

"And what am I supposed to do when they come to kill me?"

"Your me," He smiled at his female clone, "you can stall for time, kill anyone that comes snooping. I need a couple weeks, and the more noise you make the less likely I'll be noticed. Fire country is the last place I want to be right now, I look a lot like a certain kage that died just a few years before. I don't want to get spotted let alone noticed."

"That seems smart." Atsuko mumbled out. "So, you find Daichi, and kill him then what?"

"I'm not planning on killing him."

"Oh?" Atsuko's questioning gaze fell on him. He struggled for a moment to talk. TO mention in words what he was planning on doing, but the devil in him mind started to whisper to him, and he felt its cold breath on his neck once more.

"_**Tell her, she you ain't she, share wha' you what you don understood. Telling yourself your own secrets…"**_ Its deep voice echoed throughout his ear. He sighed in relief when it disappeared.

He pulled out an inkwell, and a small scroll. He quickly started to write out a seal pattern. Atsuko whistled, as she watched his hands quickly dart across the scroll, in a few seconds a complex seal laid bare before them.

"You pick that up In Uzu no Kuni?"

"This and then some."

"You mind sharing?" Naruto looked up at Atsuko, and then realized one of the innate functions of his clones. He made a hand sign, and with a rush of chakra a new him appeared, only to disappear.

Atsuko stood stunned for a moment, her face slack, and her blue eyes going blank as a torrent of information flooded into her mind. She looked at him as she snapped back into reality. Her face was grim, as she looked at him.

"The actual fuck?"

Naruto nodded at her assessment. "So much useful information, but I've got that…_thing, _now hounding away at my mind. Whispering in my ear and tormenting me like my own personal devil. It's tied to whatever they did to give me all the sealing knowledge they had, and I've checked, they didn't include how to get rid of it with what they gave me, and I don't think I have anywhere near the knowledge to get rid of it…I'm stuck."

"Shit…"

"Look," Naruto frowned at Atsuko as he spoke. " Lets, lets stop thinking about this. We need to focus. How the hell am I going to get into fire country? The borders tighter than an Uchiha's sphincter, I have decent stealth skills, but it's hard as hell to hide all the chakra I got, even if I can hide my looks with a seal, ill be noticed a mile away."

"How about Nature chakra…?"

"No, not viable at all. We'd need to much of it to hide me, weird chakra sources do get investigated and enough Nature chakra can be noticed by any half decent tracking nin, not to even mention sensors."

The two fell into a deep silence, as they pondered the issue.

"Ren-baachan."

"What?"

"Old lady Ren. The contract she gave us…we could sign it, then have them reverse summon us."

"My summon contract with the toads is invalid, I mean, I can't really be bound by something I haven't signed yet. But…still, you think that would work?"

"It's how Nagato did it…"

"Hmm…."

The evening was slowly turning to night, and the tiny twinkles of stars in the dimming sky had begun to shine in the sky. Naruto looked up, and smiled. He bit his thumb, and ran the bloody appendage over a small seal tucked into his jacket sleeve. A puff of smoke revealed the thick blue and white scroll, embroidered with the swirl pattern known to the Uzumaki clan.

He leapt from the tree tops, freefalling to the ground before lashing out a hand to correct his form, and landing feet first without a sound. Atsuko followed shortly after, and landed similarly. She smiled a wide smile at him as he unfurled the scroll.

He stared at the scroll, it was partially unfurled, but he could already see more than a dozen names, all of them ending in Uzumaki that had signed the scroll. He smiled as he signed his own name in blood, he then watched as his name glowed a dim yellow before finally settling down. He smirked, and couldn't help but laugh.

He ran chakra through his hand as he completed long familiar hand signs. A deep rich white poof of smoke appeared, and as it faded Naruto looked at his new summon. It was a humming bird, a deep rich blue, like his eyes, with accents of white, and purple. It was fist sized and it wings beat like a thousand little thrums. It opened its beak, and a voice startlingly beautiful came through.

"It's been a long time since one of us was summed, years, and years…" It spoke, and sung at the same time, it was strange, but Naruto couldn't deny he didn't find it…enjoyable, for lack of a better word. Idly he realized where the old lady Ren had gotten her strange speech pattern from. The bird emphasized seemingly random words for no reason, time was emphasized, summoned seemed lengthened, and it followed that seem rhythmic pattern that Ren spoke in. One two three, one two three, one three four. It was strange, yet calming.

"Do you have a name?"

"I am too young to have a name. They simple call those like me…little ones."

"Ren seems to have found someone she trusts to hand the contract to. Though, we have to test you to make sure your worth of being our summoned."

"Really?"

"Don't worry it's simple enough, summon our leader. Tsubame-sama is her name, she will choose your trail."

"Can you follow me? I want to put some distance between Kanagawa and myself." He turned to Atsuko, handed her the papers he'd stuffed into his pockets and quickly muttered out "head into Kanagawa, take control of the blue tortious and wait for me. I'll be back in half a day or so."

Atsuko grabbed the piece of paper, nodded and headed back towards the city. Naruto headed in the opposite direction. Speeding alongside him was the same blue and white hummingbird flitting left and right amongst the trees as she moved.

xx-xxx-xxx

Atsuko looked at the woman that now stared at her. She'd been here for nearly three weeks and then for a few days she'd disappeared. Now she was back, and she had all the paperwork necessary for her to take ownership of the place, needless to say, some of the women weren't too happy about this.

"Who the hell are you to come here and tell us what to do. What happened to Yuto?"

"Yuto's been replaced, I'm his replacement for the next couple weeks." She called out confidently, some of the woman smiled at her antics, most did not. Most kept quiet, those here of their own free will smiled at her, and those forced her of circumstance of coercion remained apathetic. Though a few, mostly those who were considered higher on the social totem at the Blue Tortoise, we worried, and rather unhappy.

"Atsuko-san, you said you might be replaced yourself in a few weeks..?"

"Yes, though I don't think that's likely. But until then, I'm running this shin dig. So I notice each of you get a forty percent cut of all income you take in yet, you have to pay expenditures on room and board. I'm changing that up, you get eighty percent cut, but still have to pay expenditures. These will have a slight raise as I'll be enacting a number of programs. When I was scouting out I noticed that some of you have talents, though their undeveloped. This rise in cost of living will pay to have you trained and educated in your various talents. Does that seem fair?"

There was a mumble that went through the crowd of women, and a quite agreement amongst them. They looked at her and she noticed many of them smiling.

"Good. Now those of you who know about the _other _purposes that the Blue Tortoise serves meet me in the madam's office in twenty minutes."

There was a mumble through the crowd, but soon a few of the women were following her to the back room. In ten minutes about a dozen gals sat around her in the madams office, all of them seeming quite worried. She smiled to ease their ills.

"So, tell me any news you've learned over the past few weeks."

"There…there's stirrings in rain. People are excited, the word is that there's a revolution going on. An insurgency is moving to dispose Hazou of the salamander. At least, that's what I could gather." Atsuko nodded and wondered what she'd heard. It would seem pain was starting to move. He couldn't remember much but he knew the disposition of Hanzo had happened quickly, so quickly barely one had realized it had occurred. But the women of the blue tortoise had.

Atsuko turned her attention to another woman, and nodded. She spoke up.

"Um….there seems to be some trouble between Kumo and Konoha, it has something to do with the Hyuuga though what exactly im unsure off."

She continued this turning to each woman and doing her best to whatever information they could muster. Slowly she got a picture of current events happening in the elemental nations. She smiled as she realized she'd appeared at an opportune time. The rebellion against the Mizukage would be starting about now, tension between Kumo and Konoha would be high, Suna was far too preoccupied with its own issues to bother with the other nations at this time, and Iwa, Iwa was busy trying to rebuild its army after the devastation known as the yellow flash.

This, Atsuko decided, this was good.

xxx-xxx-xxx

The clearing was large, and nearly twenty miles from Kanagawa. The same blue and white hummingbird swarmed around us. Flitting up and down, jerking in that irresistible way a creature that _had_ to move is forced too. Naruto hand went through hand signs and a large puff of smoke appeared. The hummingbird loomed over him a hundred times over. It was beautiful. A snow stark white, through and through. It massive eyes were a deep rich red, and with every stroke of it massive wings the tree moved and swayed, pushing and pulling with the beating breathing life of one person. It spoke, in that same sing song voice, beautiful and strangely rhythmic. He found he enjoyed it.

"So….you wish to summon my kind."

"Yes."

"The trail is simple. My kind is fast, we eat fast, move fast, think fast. Live fast, at least when compared to the other summons." She shifted, and her voice hummed like a thousand bells all singing together. "Be fast, be swift. The little one you first summoned is one of our fastest, you duty is simple, catch her before sundown. When you have caught her she will dispel, and our pact will be completed."

The great hummingbird disappeared. And the small blue and white bird appeared. It hummed around his head, jerking to and frown. Then I blurred away, speeding swiftly through the tree while it laughed. Again the sing song voices song birds sounded, and Naruto leapt after it. Jumping and leaping through the treetops as he did so. The chase was on.

He leapt from tree to tree, using shushin to occasionally boost his speed as he twisted his body and aimed for the bird. His hand reached out, he felt it brush against the down of her feathers, then she was gone. Disappearing back into the trees and he let out a silent curse.

This he realized, wasn't going to be easy.

**xxx-xxx-xxx **

**Things are picking up. How did you like this chapter, how did you like the summoning? Anyways time for some answers.**

**1)Spelling mistakes...I make them, I'm looking for a beta to fix them...anyone interested? Hmmm...? Come one do it for me, i'll consider it a favor? **

**2) Where did all of you come from? Why the sudden interest in this story not that i'm complaining but goddamn. I have over three hundred fanfiction alerts from you glorious bastards and its got me with a smile plastered on my face. **

**3)Read and review i love you guys. **

**4) The torture scene wasn't as intense as i wanted it, i reread it and it didn't turn out anything like i thought it would. tell me what you think. I'm setting up a system in which Naruto can act and influence the world as a whole. I don't think the normal time trivial idea of appearing in konoha and just working their works. Sometimes it does, most of the time it follows a familiar that's become all too cliche. I dont want to make a cliche story, and i'm doing my best to make sure i don't make common cliche mistakes with this story. Things will pick up soon. And you might like what i have in mind. **


	4. Chapter 4

The trees shifted and twisted as Naruto moved. His body was built for speed, and endurance, as he flitted through the trees he couldn't help but to feel excited. It had been a while since he'd had a good chase, even if he wasn't at the end of it this time. He leapt forward, the wind blowing in his hair, the evening sun shining above his head. The sweet smell of trees and leaves wafted into his nose, he shifted his head when he heard the beating of little one's wings.

"Catch me if you can, golden boy. You'll need to move faster than a slug to catch me."

"You've got a big mouth for something so little." He crossed his fingers, smiling as he did so. A triumphant grin on his face, a group of clones were formed. They split up, two heading ahead to try and flank the hummingbird summon. He remained with two other clones, forming a triangle he stayed in the tail end off. The two other clones headed to each side of the bird. They were going to catch it, weather It was easy or hard. Chakra blared as the five men ran and shifted, blaring chakra as they speed up and tried their damned hardest to catch the little bird.

"Catch me, catch me, you won't be able to catch me. One, two, three, four, five, even with five, you won't be able to catch me. You'll have to move faster. Faster and faster, the Hachidori clan lives fast, we breathe fast, eat fast, _breed_ fast. You'll have to be faster than that to catch me." The little one's voice was like bells, sweet and melodic ringing through the forest.

Naruto blurred, using more chakra in an attempt to catch the tiny bird. His clones were starting to corner her, driving her slowly towards the first clones he had sent out to route her. His hands started to flash through seals, he grinned internally. The clones appeared suddenly from the trees, they too running through hand signs at an alarming rate. Little one tried to skirt around them, but she failed and so she turned around and attempted to flee back towards the original Naruto's direction. He finished the last hand seal and a web of seals sparked into the air. It circled her, then suddenly it formed a small cuboid cage to hold her in. Naruto smirked down at the little bird.

"I caught you."

"No fair, you cheated!"

"I can't be the only Uzumaki to use seals to catch your kind can i?"

"No…" The bird seemed to pout for a moment, stopping the rapid flapping of her wings to place her beak beneath her breast.

"Come on don't pout. You were so confident a minute ago!"

"Hmmph!" The bird said before pulling his beak from her wing to talk to him. "You pass the test, I shall let Tsubame-sama know. Congratulations Uzumaki Naruto, we've worked with your clan happily for centuries, hopefully we can do the same with you."

The summon unsummoned itself, and Naruto cast a look at the sky. It was getting late, and he'd have to meet back with Atsuko soon. He stopped for a moment, and pondered. When had he started referring to the clone as Atsuko and not his clone? He frowned, then pushed it to the back of his mind. It wasn't worth the effort to think too much about it.

He leapt forwards, leaping from tree to tree as the night slowly started to encroach around him. By the time he had reached Kanagawa it was dark again. He smiled as he slipped through the alleyways of the city to the blue tortious, passing by food vendors whose wares drew his interest with their smells. He found it, and slipped onto the roof. He made a clone, and had it dispel itself. A few minutes later Atsuko walked to the top of the roof behind him.

"That was fast."

"I cheated." He smirked at her and sat on the ground, propping himself up by leaning against one of the railings on the roof of the blue tortoise.

"So what now?"

"You tell me what you've found out before i head for fire country."

"Everybody's too preoccupied with their own things to notice us for a while. The civil wars in Kiri are about to began. Apparently Akatsuki's making its move in rain. Iwa is trying to rebuild its forces after the decimation that was the yellow flash. The Hyuuga incident likely went down not too long ago, and Suna's still having trouble with it's Daimyo. We won't be noticed until things calm down. That give us about a two to four year time rang before the big player start to realize we exist, if all things go as planned."

Naruto sighed. " I plan to slap a mind control seal on Daichi when i find him. I shouldn't have killed Yuto. That was stupid of me..."

Atsuko looked at Naruto and shrugged. "Can't change it now. Besides I think i could run the show just fine. The girls seem to be ambivalent towards me. Though some don't seem to like me too much. THough that likely more a 'the devil you know' situation than anything else...I could keep things in check for about a month, before you'd need to come in and 'officially' set things straight with them. And besides do you have any plans after we get a hold of the blue tortoise? I mean, how are we going to use them? "

" I'm going to send you into Konoha's branch of the blue tortoise. Its on the border of the red light district near the market district and where we, I, lived about this time. We should be a little older than three right about now. We didn't leave the orphanage until around five or so, but i do remember running around that general area when i was about that age."

Atsuko frowned as her eyes scanned her counterpart.

"You think that'll work?"

"We need a way to keep track of young us in Konoha. After Daichi I'm moving on to rain, You'll need to keep track of our younger self and keep him happy, and not so lonely. I mean, we would have killed for just one person to show us compassion during that time, Imagine if someone who knew what we'd gone through just appeared?"

"If we start to get close Sarbatori will start to ask questions..."

"We'll worry about that later. For now though...for now we'll focus on the immediate stuff. On the here and now and how we are going to handle it."

"What are you going to do in rain?"

"I'm going to try to keep tabs on Akatsuki, then i'll head to Taki and grab Fuu. If i remember right, she should be around five or six now. She'd probably come along willingly, but if she won't then i could always just take her by force."

"Kidnapping? Won't that bring us to international attention pretty soon, I mean she's a Jinchuuriki, Taki won't just let us waltz in and take her, and thats if we take her by force. Even if she wants to come with us, they won't just let us leave. We can't do the same thing we're going to do with the young us in Konoha, Taki's paranoid as all hell they'd 'kill' us as soon as we looked like we were getting close to Fuu. "

"Then we just gotta' take her before they notice she's gone. Takis not as large as the big five, or a place like Kanagawa but it's still a decent size. We can do it..."

"I know we can do it, I'm just questioning whether we'll get caught or not while we do it. It'll be hard for me to get close to our younger selves if someone's out there just stealing Jinchuuriki."

"I won't get caught. I know me, you know me. Don't worry." Atsuko cast a glance at her male counterpart and sighed.

**xxx-xxx-xxx **

Arashi sat back across from the blue tortoise located in Tanzaku Gai. His blond hair was now died an indistinct brown. His eyes matched his hair, and his skin was many shades paler than his normal bronzed tone. His face was an indscript one, a face absolutely forgettable in the greater looks and images of the world. His thin whisker scars we gone. He smirked and he looked at the building. The casino was next to the brothel, a large cream white building with bright neon light. The blue tortoise sat inconspicuously next it. It was the exact same as the blue tortoise in Kanagawa.

"They used the same building plans..."

"**It was likely to keep things recognizable. You and you kind tend to have a pension for patterns."**

"But still...that's terribly stupid."

"**I doubt the internal looks exactly the same."**

"I think you misjudge how stupid people can be Kurama."

"**I do not. You give me ample example of how stupid people can be."**

Naruto grunted and decided it was better to ignore the fox demon, than recognize his jab. He stood up and stretched. His eyes scanning the horizon as he watched the sun set. Lights slowly flickered on, and the sounds of the evening throbbed in the background. He stretched once more, ridding himself of all the kinks in his body. He leapt forward, and landed on the roof of the touched down without a sound. He sat down, closed his eyes and focussed. His mind expanded, peeling back the noise of the city, the smells of the approaching night, and focusing slim sliver of nature energy. He smirked.

There was someone on the top floor.

He leapt from the blue tortoise onto one of the walls of the casino. Swiftly, before anyone noticed him he sprinted to the roof. He made it in a few second, and smiled as he looked around. There was a door left open. He slinked in, closed the door softly behind him, and quickly descended the stairwell. He exited the stairwell into a hallway. It was dimly lit, and unguarded, and he couldn't help but be startles at the blatant lack of security. Yuto had, had a dozen mid chunin level nin running around. But there was no one here, perhaps Yuto had lied? The room went dark.

Shit…

He frowned, and slid a Kunai out his back holster. Knowing his luck things were about to go to absolute shit for now reason. He made a clone and sent it ahead to scout. It died a few second later with a flash of silver, and the grunt of a voice he could hear out of the darkness. He frowned, he'd walked right into a trap.

"**That's what you get for being such an over confident bastard."**

"_Kyuubi, I don't think right now's the time for this…"_

"**I completely disagree. This is the perfect time. I'm awake, your awake, that doesn't happen too often you know." **

Naruto frowned and started to run through seals. A few second later he slammed his hand on the ground and seal script ran across the room in a sudden rush of black. It weaved up and down the pitch black hallway, before finally settling down. He activated it, without hesitation. The hallway light up in light blue light.

Naruto cast a look at his opponent. It was a woman, about five foot two or so. Her hair was blue. Her skin pale. Dark green eyes watched him sternly. She was attractive, in that cute way. Not exactly womanly, or full of what one would call famine curves, but still her face was notably attractive. She carried a blade taller than her on her shoulder. Tight, form fitting shorts hugged at her legs. A looser blouse flowed to just past her midriff.

"You're kind of skilled for someone so stupid." Her voice was soft, yet firm, and easily carried throughout the room.

"Thanks….? Wait, no. No thanks. That was uncalled for."

"Well, it's not every day that someone just waltzes into an obvious trap."

Naruto didn't answer and instead pouted at the women. "Still…" He muttered softly. He smirked at her, when suddenly a clone appeared behind her. She dodged to the left, but it was already too late. The clone grabbed onto her, swung to its right and through her through an opposite wall. She landed in the street. A snarl appearing on her face, and him, both of him, smirked at her. His clone launched himself and her, and he…he turned and sprinted for his target.

xxx-xxx-xxx

Atsuko looked down at the small green haired Fu and smiled. The jinchuuriki however, didn't seem to wish to return the same common courtesy. Yet, that just made her smile even wider.

"Who are you?"

Atsuko wiped a wayward strand of dark brown hair out the way. Blond was to noticeable in waterfall. Once more she smiled down at Fu before placing a small hand out to the now six year old girl.

"My name is Atsuko…I'm here as a friend. Your name's Fu right?"

Fu frowned and looked at the hand in distaste. She didn't shake it. Instead she stepped further back into the shadows of the alley way. She looked left, and right, in anticipation of escape. Atsuko frowned as she realized what the girl was doing. Those weren't the tendencies of small children. She looked more like a cornered animal than anything. How many times had she been trapped that she now looked for escapes at every chance?

"No need to worry Fu-chan. I'm a friend." She stepped closer and the girl took a measured step back. She stopped. Caution was needed…

"Fu-chan…"

"Stop that." Fu's small voice came out. It was feeble and weak.

"Stop what?"

"Stop calling me 'Fu-chan.' You don't know me. I don't know you…if you're going to hurt me get it over with."

She frowned and reached out to touch Fu. Placing a hand on the girl's small cheek. She whimpered under the touch and stood waiting for pain that would never come. Atsuko rubbed a soft hand on the girls' cheek, wiped away the tiny tears that were starting to form and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. Then, she knocked her out, and grabbed her falling body and cradled it in her arms.

She sensed around herself. A swatch of ninja heading in a straight beeline for where she was. Just her luck.

"Fuck."

She whispered out to herself.

**Xxxx-xxxx-xxxx**

**Short chapter. Sorry about that. Schools started up for me again and I couldn't write more. Short chapters for all my stories until I have more time. I hope you like this one….well off to do me some of that ap psyche homework.**


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